##VIDEO ID:19JZ2bBYfK8## so let's call to order the Wednesday October 9th 2024 meeting of the Middle School building committee um we're going to start with public comment we have 15 minutes allowed for public comment if anyone wishes to speak not seeing any takers and there's no one online um we can move to approval of minutes from the August 28th 2024 meeting like to make a motion to approve the minutes from the August 28th 2024 meeting of the Middle School building committee do we have a second second great Marty you want to call the rooll uh sure Chris yes Julie yes Nicole yes Marty Z yes Lynn yes yes all right five V okay and then do we have cor correspondents to enter does anybody wanted sure um we have a few items of Correspondence um the first a letter from Bill de Julio dated August 27th 2024 the next a letter from Bill de Julio dated um August 28 2024 and the last from Gary LaVine dated September 16th 2024 great and then moving to new business we have an update from col all right I'll share our screen here thank you very much one second LGE this for us all right we good to go great thank you very much and I know that screen's hard to read but um I'll walk through it just uh briefly here so as we all know we're currently in the feasibility study which is mod three with the msba and um within this module we submitted the PSR which is the ferred schematic report and that was submitted to the msba um and and that is essentially the the the preferred solution for um the town of L for the Middle School uh since that submission we have had a facilities assessment subcommittee which was on uh September 25th and that was a presentation that was done by the district jwa and ourselves cers that was presented to the msba um and and a few of their members and that presentation went very very well uh there was a great feedback from the msba um they were very happy with the presentation they were extremely happy with the Ed plan that was submitted they they thought it was very thoughtful as far as what the uh the school district is currently doing and then the forethought of what's to to come in the future with a Consolidated School so they have really good things to say about it um they even said at the end that they would like to use this uh presentation as an example for districts that are a little bit behind us and coming through the program uh so I thought that was a great compliment for for what was presented what was submitted for for the uh for the PSR so that facilities assessment subcommittee is kind of a precursor to the full board meeting uh that's going to take place on October 30th and I think we just have placeholders in our calendars now the msba has not sent us a full invite as of yet I did send off an email the other day to vrii who is our uh msba consultant with the msba and she responded saying they have recommended us to be on that agenda for the October 30th but we have not heard you know officially from from the board saying uh that we are but I'm assuming based on that response that we will be um and then um as we're walking through the schedule here so again after that October 30th meet meeting and if all goes well and approval then we move into module 4 of the msba which is the schematic design um and that will you know we'll get further into the design and jwa will work hard to you know keep going with the design working with the you know the school district uh community fors and all those types of things really to develop the the plan and project even further um and then as we get through that we'll you know we'll do another cost estimate it'll be the similar process that we just went through through the feasibility as far as the steps go and we'll meet with the msba again and then at the end of that we'll meet with the board again with the full schematic uh report uh to the msba we'll go through the same type of process with the cost estimate in the in the presentation to them as well um and then from there we would move into module 5 which is is funding the project um with a fall of 2025 vote uh to the town so that's kind of our schedule going out that far and then one question we are working on a future schedule even past this to get us through all the way through construction and close out and moving the kids in and all that other fun stuff uh so we're working on that now actually Dory is coming to our office tomorrow and we're still kind of walking through a bunch of different scenarios um and developing that schedule so there'll be more to come hopefully next month we'll have that even broken out so we can start talking about you know the long the you know down the road and how that's all going to play into hand um ly just stepped out I was going to mention to her I know we talked about October November for a town vote but one thing we want to bring up to is the possibility of doing a September special town meeting for this project as well so that's something we' like to you know talk about as these meetings go on um if that's if that's going to help us with the schedule starting a little bit sooner before the winter comes and you know as that plays out throughout the the life of the project um so I think that's it for schedule unless there's any other questions that could be a head start on if if if there were a special town meeting it would give you a head start on it would just it's just going to give us a little bit of extra time before you know the winter hits essentially uh to maybe get some footings in the ground that type of stuff um so if we go from a November town meeting to a September it just gives us a little bit of extra time just to start doing that work the one thing I'd like to add on the um the estimating that's going to be done in feasibility there was uh just one estimate that was done by the design team that came up with it once we get into schematic design we have two estimators we have an estimators working for the district and one and the same one that's working with the with the the design team and so each one does a a blind um estimate of the project in schematic design and then we sit and reconcile that with the numbers to make sure that um we're double-checking each other so it's um you usually see the number get tighter on when you have a schag and having two estimators makes it um a little bit feel more comfortable that we were on target right good to hear [Music] yeah that my agenda on mine oh it doesn't have that level of detail okay all right so we can move into um turn it over to jwa to Dory and Christian and uh update on the PSR submission and sure we'll pick up on some of the comments that uh came out of the FAS uh presentation so they'll respond to us twice first preliminary comments just major issues that they wanted us to uh respond to right away prior to them making the recommendation so they did ask uh for a few things they wanted us to just tighten up a summary of the different options that were reviewed again that's been their they they've been looking for a lot of uh back background on all the options so that was provided uh they wanted to have this overall project scheduled Milestones that Adam mention that they're working on currently and they were interested in understanding the relationship between the Ed plan and the preferred design more specifically so it's one of those things where they asked for so many options it's hard for them to sort of see the direct relationship between those two things so we provided a narrative of that that we've provided to the district and one of the things we've been discussing is from the um um preferred schematic design report there's so much meat in it it's very hard for the community to follow all of that without digging through hundreds of pages um but that that specific summary is really really very helpful for the community to understand the education plan so we're pulling that and some of the specific details of the final preferred option out and packaging them separately so that they can be available on the project site um so so people don't have to work so hard to understand the project essentially um the facilities assessment subcommittee review is as you know a combination of professionals from various um directions education design um civil construction and they give comments that are also useful to us as designers and this is one of the more um kind of involved conversations we have around the design um from the msba um so we find it very useful um one of the comments they brought up that we thought was important to share is that uh in terms of the auditorium design at the middle school level level they see Great Value and remember they see a lot of different plans in that Auditorium being very multi-purpose and flexible rather than overthe toop theatrical you know where everything is is high-end uh lighting and sound equipment and therefore complex versus something quite easy to use that can be used in in a variety of different ways which is a good comment to hear I'm thinking of it as a teaching space is much as a performance space um u a lot of discussion about the importance of accessibility throughout the school as a concern but now that we see more conversation about using the outdoors thinking about that in the Outdoor Learning spaces um recommendation to consider adding a covered area at the student drop off for for weather it's pretty classic and something we will probably talk about in schematic design um um they noted that we were farther along in thinking about geothermal than most projects are and that that was a very good thing so it's been a real stumbling block for projects and appreciated that our plan was out outside of the footprint of the building um for the geothermal which is appropriate to maintenance um and then uh you know as a whole they they we acknowledged how much good has happened in the district historically in the buildings and what people liked about the buildings they appreciated that level of investigation and the amount of work that had been done with faculty and stressed keeping faculty engaged throughout the design process and then appreciated the the way the mass of the building was broken into Parts rather than just a giant mass and how that did make sense from an architectural perspective in the context of its location go to the next slide yeah so uh as Adam said we're uh moving along we've submitted that uh and we're in a bit of a a small lull technically where where we we can only ask a little bit of our Consultants while we're waiting to know if this project is moving forward technically but we have started meeting with our consultant again to map out the work plan for schematic design um we also met recently with Town officials um police fire um planning to talk again about traffic and circulation as we've said the project area is what it is but beyond the project area there are things that are related to the project area and there's been really great conversations about um other investigations and other projects that can help improve circulation um in and around the site so those kinds of conversations and uh you know if you have any other additional comments but there I think it's been really helpful to continue to have these conversations and we'll we'll be doing that throughout the process um the um committee has asked to see other schools as we move forward particularly remember one of the major questions that's still outstanding is the auditorium cafetorium gymatorium um so we have the auditorium and the plans and as a way of helping to investigate that further U we offered uh uh some site visits to other schools so Walpole Middle School is is somewhat comparable um I I actually decided walpo would be a good site for us to visit because actually the site of the school is a 20 Acre Site I have a little bit more information later on in the slide deck here about it um but we put on the schedule for this interim period uh a possible visit to Walpole on October 17th and you know everybody on the committee is welcome um uh the approval will happen on the 30th and then we'll move forward from there but we also have already scheduled a meeting with the energy and sustainability to talk about the sustainability features of the project and the town's been uh talking about the opt-in municipal code and was curious to know how this would relate it's not a problem but we'll talk more about that with that committee and talk about other aspects of the Project's uh uh details and then then we jump into schematic design and you'll we'll start in the process here and in our next meeting will outline some of the the steps and what that'll look like in detail we have a uh professional development day on November 5th November 5th um and so I'm not sure what our calendar off top of my head I'm not sure what our calendar looks like for our Middle School Educators but if that's a possibility on your end we can look into it revisit with and would that be all of the faculty again uh I'd have to see who's available that day but um and what we have planned but if it works on your end we can look at it yeah and I think the next step for us is to talk about uh in schema design we we're thinking about how to break down going through what we have on the plans with um with staff to talk about it and start getting more into on that plan so we revisit the plan as it is but then start diving in Department by Department uh and with two schools that'll be a challenge so there couple different ways we can work that out set a detailed schedule okay we'll be in touch Marty just as a reminder November 5th is election day also in case that had any effect on people's attendance right yeah well the teachers still have to come yeah teachers are still yeah we have it as a professional development day yeah yeah so this is just a summary of uh jumping way ahead of what we're going to provide the state at the end of schematic design um so this is a basically kind of a summary of our table of contents for the the binder that we um submit and we just kind of wanted to walk through it because it is helpful to think about kind of like where we are now and how we get to there um so first is a submission to deese um and that's specifically on the special education um you know methodology and they want to see a a list of those spaces and exactly where they are in the plan um we've talked previously about how that's one area in the msba space summary where we have a little bit more flexibility and that's because that is um the oversight is under uh the department of Elementary and secondary education um once that's set at the end of schematic design they would prefer that it stay that way forever you know if we need to make subtle changes from there to design development or in construction documents we need to get that reapproved by deese at each step of the way so it's very important that we you know kind of like keep that as a as a separate um approval process outside of the msba and then under the msba binder so we'll have an introduction that we'll write educational space summary that you know itemizes each and every classroom and space within the building um existing conditions updates so usually that's traffic environmental geotechnical we did talk about at that meeting with the town that um we will have an updated traffic report that will be included in this code analysis utility analysis that's you know want to make sure that um we don't need a fire pump um to uh so you know test the water make sure that we've got enough pressure uh they want to see a massing study then of course we get all of the systems descriptions that comes in from our consultants and I think it's important here to remember that the the the true goal at the end of schematic design is to get that very detailed cost estimate right so to get the descriptions from the um structural engineer from our mechanical electrical Plumbing Engineers that all is information that goes to the cost estimators so that they can give us as as accurate a number as possible because that that sets the budget for the rest of the project um Sustainable Building design room data sheets so this um is a tremendous amount of work and it's really helpful to get the input from the teachers so this is where we basically dedicate two sheets of paper to every single room in the building and we're talking about number of desks you know should there be Outlets what's the technology in the room is there a SN is there not a snc um a lot of detail in every single room in the building um and so it's really helpful going forward into design development and construction documents to be able to look back at that what were our goals in schematic design what did we want in each and every room uh what was a priority to the to the faculty and staff um so those play a critical role um proposed construction methodology is something else that we'll discuss um and callers will be discussing with you as well so that's if you've heard the terms whether we go design bid build or we go construction manager at risk those are kind of our two options and we'll get into much more details on that so that's one item that we talked about adding for the agenda for next month just so we can walk through the pros and cons of each okay is that next month is that yeah we're all right so the msba wants to know that that's set in stone by the end of schematic design um reimbursement rate so that's making sure that the msba and the district are on the same page that way total project budget and cost estimate those are those two estimates that um Alan was talking about um updated Project work plan that's basically our schedule going forward and local actions and approvals that's uh evidence that you know we've met with the bilding committee and Etc so uh it's a lot and sorry to B everybody about walking through that but it's helpful to you know just think about all of those uh individual items that will be uh important by the end of the the schematic design process the next slide Marty is even more although yeah questionsly on the um des's approval of the spe special education plan if we were to exceed the msba allotment for rooms or squar footage but and desie approves it does that make it more likely that the msba will reimburse that space under that special education category of the space summary yeah exactly more likely or they'll automatically automatically automatically do it yeah excellent yeah uh and so then apart from that then we also have our uh project manual which is our specifications um you know by the end of this project that will be a stack of paper This Tall usually it's schematic design it's only about that tall but it's still uh you know going through each and every product that goes into the building um and then we'll have a set of drawings they won't be super detailed especially on the you know mechanical electrical Plumbing won't be into that level of detail yet but on the architecture side uh we will have plans uh they want to see interior elevations of a typical classroom and a typical science lab um exterior elevations we usually go a little bit above and beyond and show some sections um so starting to get a real understanding of of the building and how the materials used and how it's going to go together um additional items is uh so outside of this well there's the construction process there's also going to be a Furniture um fixtures um and Technology uh budget that's somewhat uh related but separate from the construction budget um so they want to see early numbers on that that goes into the total project budget um for the project um and a life cycle cost analysis so that's really looking at um a valuating different mechanical systems and thinking about them not just in terms of how much they cost on day one but how much they cost throughout the life cycle of the building um so talking about replacement CL costs cost of utilizing those systems over time um and again that's something that we'll present to you at a later uh School building committee meeting one thing Marty that you brought up recently that I wanted to touch on and be sure we put on the calendar soon is talking to District instruction technology um that proprietary items question and the technology budget question both relate to District decisions about instructional technology and What needs there are what what approach you might take some of which might require some research in some conversations with the town so that's something you want to put on the calendar for November November to get into great so everybody should have this already and reviewed it so if we just skim through it pretty yeah thank you yes so this is this is the presentation that we gave to the msba the facilities assessment subcommittee um but totally age on and we'll put it on the website too as well it's already up it's already already up good yeah yeah and a lot of it was bringing the msba up to speed on your community and you know the existing conditions and everything we've covered up to this point right so you are all much more familiar with it than than they were at the time yeah I would think if somebody can just like summarize what the msba thought I mean I what I took out of it was the education plan they said was excellent and great job by Marty and the the district team is was that but you guys were there so go ahead yeah no I I think the the Ed plan they were pleased with I think the overall format of the prese presentation I think the the due diligence that we've done with stakeholders to really map out a vision for the for the where we are right now I think they they they thought highly of that as well so um yeah it was it was really good feedback and as Adam mentioned earlier they they felt like the the presentation uh set a standard that they'd like other districts to follow so that was nice to hear awesome very positive responses overall um some feedback on things to consider moving forward but overall um they seemed very appreciative of the process that we've been through so far and and enjoyed hearing more about the project seemed excited about it anything from your perspective l or same yeah they had big glowing praise at the end spoke really highly to The Architects and the OPM and said the district was in good hands so that felt good good job team love you do you want to hit this the way we in in in sort of a quicker fashion the way we presented it with the to the MBA we can run quickly so we explained to them that uh this is a consolidation and and we reminded them you know where Long Meadow is and and the nature of the district's Uh current geography because that's something they're not famili with obviously um always good to do uh then talked a lot about our visioning process and and how engaged we were the fact that we interview faculty which not all teams do um and that we engage students in in several visioning exercises as well um I think they appreciate knowing that uh we this actually is a slide that got a huge amount of Praise because they they tell you what they want in this slideshow and then we added this because we find this um analysis of the existing schools really helpful they appreciated that we also pointed out that you're are um you know already a high performing district and therefore we wanted to learn from what was working in the district as well as those things that the district sought to improve on and they were really respectful of that um so this in this slide we were trying to talk about some of the the pluses and minuses of the existing building and the lessons learned from that and they pointed that out to staff as something they'd like to see other districts do getting that kind of Praise from the MSP is kind of a big deal for that's not com Mar you took that slide and hit it out of the park exactly uh this is an overview of uh trying to really it's hard to graphically represent where how you move from the education plan to the design um but really it's probably the most important part of this moment in the project where you're actually taking all of these educational ideas and trying to Fig actualize them in the plan and think about the educational experience and how what the experience for students is going to feel like and for staff is going to feel like so this was really talking about the journeys of sixth seventh and eighth graders at this age range some of the priorities of the district around the district's vision of The Graduate um and how that vision of a graduate really is largely at this age around developing learner autonomy and curiosity and supporting that and how do we the designers help you to do that by creating those conditions in the school and that's constant conversation in the background but we we spent some time talking about the role of Independence and Supervision in this age range and how it differs moving from primary to high school um and talked about the the site constraints of this project as well as the con rints that internal goals in the Ed plan have and how those two things kind of push and pull to help create the form of the building essentially uh and some of the priorities that come through in the education plan for putting certain types of learning on display um steam uh at the first floor level the idea of an intact sixth grade Wing um Community Access how those are some of the the forces shaping the inside of the building and then responding to the outside to the constraints of um circulation and parking um outdoor place space safe and secure access things like that so all of those challenges that you watched us go through uh and then you know you want to pick up or show this cruise I mean yeah this you guys have seen this SL a million times but uh getting them familiar to the existing site and then the next slide on the proposed slight here they wanted to see very specifically main entries so we've you know got those called out um understanding of public after hours entry parking drop off separate from Bus drop off um the little red rectangles outside of the classroom wings are showing areas of possible future expansion it's just something that they want to make sure is somewhat incorporated into the plan um and then at the bottom I don't know if we had developed that before we had the last school building commit meeting but they always want to see a site section which I think are sometimes more dramatic than this one it's pretty pretty level but um it was helpful to think about that you know so that uh red line going through the site plan at the top is reflected down there as a section going through so you can see it cutting through the classroom wings and then on the right cutting through the um gym um and it's relationship to William Street preliminary massing I again think this was included in the last school building committee I think we might have uh put in a little bit more detail just so that they could get a sense of the scale a little bit more um but you know really trying to reference um being in Long Meadow the history of Long Meadow and then also the the neighborhood residential uh uh you know surroundings um and trying to um break up the massing um to help uh relate to both of those things um and and the msba was yeah again quite um complimentary on on that and I think they were complim because of the fact that it looks fairly developed but I want to stress that it's not in any way you know there's a significant amount like the plan that is wor thinking about 3D and how that forms and you see that but the articulation of of Windows and is is not at all or or materials is really not there but it gives you a vague sense like the roof line we're going to these are all the types of things we'll be studying in this phase and it will change a lot um but so I don't want people in a way it's a little early for people to start seeing this image but it's helpful for people to see it as well sustainability we discussed and again uh talk that we've already done a geothermal test well that we're considering open loop versus closed loop systems they were all um surprised that we were at that level already um and talking about an all electric school and um looking for incentives um to the IRA and and uh and through State incentives as well well I think it's important though to point out on that one that we've been talking about stretch codes right then there's the code there's stretch code and then there is the optin or municipal code and the project is already priced and schemed for the opal optimal or the maximum Energy Efficiency within the building which opens us up to the maximum amount of reimbursements from Mass Save and other reimbursements uh after the project is done so we'll be meeting with the said sustainability committee but we're already ahead of where they wanted to be from their what they've said at select board meetings in the past am I saying that right yeah okay exactly it's complicated uh walking through the floor plans again you guys have seen this many many times but uh introduction to them and and tying that back to the Ed plan um that Marty and Dory covered earlier and and here the here is just there the uh there's a member of the committee that's quite interested in the educational goals of the district they were very excited to see uh they that was uh Terry Quan who was involved when the msba was uh supervising the high school project so she remembered the high school very fondly was really excited to see reference to it and some consideration of it what worked there what didn't and and was really quite attentive to that uh so that was we we did not know that that was not way we put the slide in but uh but that was really again the connection between the two schools in district philosophy and what was unique about the district in terms of creating these um shared spaces between clusters of classrooms um so a little bit of a a geeking out moment for people uh we put this together after uh our last meeting with you all and that's really just a diagrammatic way of describing the project uh on the left is describing that what we consider really critical in this age group is that movement from the core academic Wings to those colored spaces that are those enrichment spaces of of stem uh music art um PE and science um and how that you know fits physically in the building so you can kind of Imagine That daily experience the second image are uh the um the um locations of special education classrooms being sure that those classrooms are not all clustered together in a way that actually you know kind of um separate students from each other uh and then the third is showing the overall circulation where you have that main circulation spine and then you have these sub communities that come off of It kind of think of it as an urban planning approach in schools you know that you have a neighborhoods and and a main AIS and that just helps to communicate that for people who struggled to read plant and then uh the role the cafeteria will play as a a key um community space within the building uh this is a required breakdown it gets harder and harder with these projects to break down um the existing square footage of the district the proposed the difference between the two you know here you are as a district reducing your overall by 24,000 square F feet but you're getting differently sized and scaled spaces so that's where the efficiency is coming in um and then looking at those areas where you vary from the mba's guidelines as we've talked about um but then specific Ally as Christian mentioned many of which are eligible for review and and reimbursement potentially which ones are not like we know very clearly that the larger gymnasium and the larger Auditorium space would not be eligible some of the others are eligible so it was it it's nice to put it in on record essentially you know and there was no no disagreement with that conversation the alt PE space considered by desie as part of our special program our first pres in PDP we put it in um the special educ spaces and the msba asked us to move it out of there so they would not consider it a Desi approved space so that's why our one of the reasons why our PE um area went up gotcha where does the stage fall stage is in the art uh uh um no so if you see there at the bottom that's another area that they ask that to be moved to the category they call other okay um so that you're actually we even on because the stage they'll reconsider right or they'll consider consider for a cost but not the not the extra auditor yeah yeah so um and then uh down to the auditorium options that's a slide that you all saw before and they were happy that's they're always really that's a big chunk of square footage they really want to know that you know that they're not not going to consider that reimbursable but it does raise a question I just want to bring up before the night is over that that is an issue that you all had wanted to have more time to explore um but for schematic design we have to go into that estimating process and the design process essentially has to reflect your decision so I'd say I'm hoping we can have another revisit of this by December and have that decision made so that we can be sure our documents serve yeah I think our last meeting we were pretty locked in locked in on the auditorium option but yeah I think we definitely should by December have another conversation and just make a final decision I think at the meeting you suggested you might want another community meeting so if you do that you know it would just be good to if that were something that you were looking for input on otherwise yeah we're happy to and the only other I'll question I had the the what do you call it the footprint how much bigger now it wasn't that much bigger I thought it was like 90 to 95,000 than what we were originally yeah um no it's not much bigger because we actually um we went up and down in various categories right so we took some down elsewhere so just want to make sure we're you know the drawing looks big on the paper but the actual footprint is not much bigger than the current building oh no if you're comparing to the current building it's about the footprint uh is about 20,000 square foot more um uh which again is not much in the overall um so it is pretty close I think we were at 74 and the footprints about 90 okay that's what I thought yeah okay and then this is the the overall comparison of the costs of the different options that we're studying and then everybody knows about wall Poole if you can make it right so these are just that's just a couple things I could pull together from it it was it's just completed so there's not a lot to see from photographic evidence online yet um but we'll see it all on the right our completion you know images on the left is the rendering U lot of Corners Chris sorry lot of Corners lot of corners and as you can see it you can see why and to our friend who works in the housing like the classroom issue right the same you see some of the same considerations um uh so it does relate um to the same stretch code and energy code issues and educational issues so it's not that radically different again it's a 20 Acre Site same size is this site actually a larger school with 95 students so I thought that would be helpful and also um the existing school was right next door so it they they remain in that school while this new school was built the existing schools being demolished now so that I just thought it might be helpful for you to talk to that District about that experience so you know Eyes Wide Open understanding of that transition nice all right that's it do you have anything else no up um before we go though I want to set the the next meeting we're set for the second Wednesday but I'd like to change it to the 6th is anybody okay with that because the week before Tom meeting I think we yeah just should meet that then we'll beet away um there's a conference oh for school committee on superintendence that week that wouldn't be good cuz we'd be missing like three of you okay uh well I just it's Wednesday November 6 all right right okay we'll keep it as is then know otherwise we're on for the 12th 13th 13th 13th okay about the 12th is Tomy yes you all should be at anyway yeah busy okay okay does anybody have anything else seeing none I'd entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second motion is second uh any discussion see none I called for a roll call Chris yes Julie y Cole yes Mary yes Lenn yes is anybody on the phone no no Armen yes we are adjourned thank you everybody good meeting good update